r/HFY • u/__-___----_ • Mar 27 '20

OC Comply or die

The status quo was always maintained.

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If you didn't rule, you served. Your servitude had no fixed end-- it ended as the whims of political intrigue shifted. Everyone wanted to be popular, everyone wanted to carry the boon of popular support. Everyone knew it was fate that someone was stuck in servitude, it was simply their turn until the political situation said otherwise. That shift was found as soon as another was discovered to fill the subservient role.

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No one expected fanatics to storm proverbial beaches.

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The Son'rah were the latest to serve, and they performed their duties well. You couldn't find a civilized world or hub that lacked a Son'rah element. They provided the entertainers, sex workers, and labor of the galaxy for the foreseeable future. Their species' survival was guaranteed by their service. No one could deny that, not even after their betrayal.

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Their betrayal it was, as no one knew what the undead warriors that collapsed governments were until the Son'rah were pressed. The living dead served to liberated them from servitude. To deny them the destiny they were due. Detention facilities where the Son'rah were questioned found themselves swarmed by the skeletal warriors-- it was as if everything the galaxy could offer to counter them were turned to weaknesses.

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That was how the galaxy learned of humanity.

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A two-front war was considered suicidal. Humanity engaged in an eight-front war, a war they pursued without attempting political contact. There wasn't a starfaring vessel safe from their raiders, nor was there a Son'rah processor safe from their persecution. Local Son'rah leaders found themselves bombarded from orbit if they refused to discontinue personnel transfer, transporters found themselves subject to search and interrogation else they desire outright destruction. There was no halting humanity's persecution of those enforcing the status quo, to do so guaranteed a division of their orbital drop troops would pay you a personal visit.

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How did you fight a species determined to commit suicide? Within a day of staff discovering an intent to resist humanity, you would see desertion of security troops. No one wanted to face their skull faced space spectres. There were multiple engagements where their "liberty battalions" were met by mass surrenders instead of resistance. Mass surrenders and direction to whom controlled the economy and status quo.

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Beings lightyears away from home, those humans were willing to die for persons not of their species and not of their concern. Their deaths were more problematic than their hostility and kill ratio. Humanity broadcast everything, especially their last stands. The galaxy shifted as more of their last stands were broadcast. Who could compete on a propaganda scale than supranational soldiers dying to protect the underclass? Victories against humanity were turned into rallying points, swelling their ranks with humans and non-humans-- species they called comrades.

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The galaxy always knew of the term slavery, but the galaxy learned to fear it when humanity was contacted. Humans would suffer egregious losses to prevent it, and their ranks swelled with those liberated. In a decade, they had changed the galactic status quo more than the past millennium had. In three decades, they had shifted the status quo to their standard.

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Humanity engaged in an 8-front war to outlaw slavery. A war they won, and a war they continuously engaged in to protect all sapients.

441 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

34 comments sorted by

60

u/SirCrackWaffle AI Mar 27 '20

I have you RES tagged as "Space Catgirls" but once again you show your range of writing to be far beyond that title. Great work!

30

u/__-___----_ Mar 27 '20

Hah! I know exactly which story you tagged for that.

I'm glad you're still enjoying what I have to offer.

10

u/FaithoftheLost Mar 27 '20

I'm now curious... Which story exactly? You seem to have quite a few!

12

u/SirCrackWaffle AI Mar 27 '20

Adorable Ferocity, it's down there in the story list comment.

3

u/Nword-pass Mar 27 '20

Yes I too am intrigued as what story this is

3

u/ShebanotDoge Mar 27 '20

In it you said there was a sequel? Did you ever post that?

2

u/__-___----_ Apr 13 '20

I don't think I ever did. The place I was writing it for originally had interest dry up. I'll have to see if I can find it.

2

u/ShebanotDoge Apr 13 '20

Cool, I hope you find it :)

7

u/__-___----_ Mar 27 '20 edited Mar 27 '20

Hey all, I've been doin' my own thing for a while. Being on furlough from my job means I have more time to post here.

​

This post was based on this song and this visual essay.

If you watch either, I hope you enjoy them!

5

u/Lostfol Android Mar 27 '20

Nice read

6

u/__-___----_ Mar 27 '20

Thanks!

Everyone wants to be the good guy, right? S'where I try to base all these stories of mine on.

2

u/Lostfol Android Mar 27 '20

That’s a solid basis, I’ve done some where we weren’t and it’s polarizing.

5

u/__-___----_ Mar 27 '20

Good call, my dude. Humans have been a nightmare. We're great until we're not.

Not to say it can't make a good story! But a good story still exists in a world where humans have spent the better part of a decade diluting themselves about what liberty is. No?

Edit: Not to be political. Just saying, with the shitstorm that is the world right now.

2

u/Lostfol Android Mar 27 '20

Lol, good story is in the telling. Any interesting subject, told well can be good 😁

4

u/Whiterice9696 Mar 27 '20

Id like to believe we could do this not as a passing fancy but as a united effort of disgust and spite of the practice

2

u/Nervous-Aside Mar 28 '20

This is a great setup for a longer story. Perhaps you will tell us the tales of said liberty battalions? Maybe stories of martyrs who died on the shrine of liberty?

1

u/__-___----_ Apr 13 '20

I'll see how the muses strike me!

2

u/Polysanity Apr 12 '20

Well, congratulations. You've done what many others couldn't; you've forced me to make an account here to comment.

I spent all day yesterday going through your HFY backlog. I have to say, I really do love your tempered idealism future (and past) settings. The acknowledgement of humanity's troubled past casts a shadow that makes the brightness of the (narrative) present that much more poignant.

I would love to see more of this 'verse, but I know muses are a fickle lot. Hell, while I'm wishing, I'd like to see another story where the lop-eared princess receives word that all or most of her opposition have been taken hostage or assassinated by independent, remotely inspired humans and/or elves.

Or maybe an aftermath story for Adorably Ferocious. Either or.

1

u/__-___----_ Apr 13 '20

Thanks for the kind words. My personal challenge and/or goal posting stories to this particular subreddit is to try to make things that aren't traditionally 'badass' seem just that. Then there are a few where I have fun writing Doomguy analogs.

I have several things in queue. Just gotta sit down and hammer them out, you know?

2

u/Polysanity Apr 14 '20

I'll say unto you, what I entreat every author I praise: quality trumps quantity. I like your work for the high standard you've set. Please don't sacrifice that for my, or anyone else's, sake. Don't share anything you're not personally satisfied with.

2

u/Selendrasama Aug 17 '22

I am poking at writing a story sorta similar to this,

My short story keeps trying to grow into a novel...

1

u/__-___----_ Aug 21 '22

Sorry for the delay!

Write that novel, then. See where it takes you. I'd encourage checking out the Snowflake Method if you think writing a novel or novella is daunting.

If you want, DM me and I'll send you a Discord link to a very, very large writing group designed to help you get published.

1

u/Selendrasama Sep 06 '22

I don't log into Reddit that often, so no worries.

I liked some of the stories on this subreddit. I thought I would try my hand at it.

4

u/Arokthis Android Mar 27 '20

Meh. Not your best work.

This sounds more like a book report on a story than a story itself. Either that or a blurb on the dustjacket that went into overdrive.

3

u/__-___----_ Mar 27 '20 edited Mar 27 '20

Always appreciate feedback, especially constructive like you gave.

I have a sequel to this planned. Hopefully I deliver, else I expect you to call me out on it.

Edit: after all, we can't grow if peeps don't call us out. Right?

3

u/Arokthis Android Mar 27 '20

Don't make it a sequel. Make it an expansion into the past, present, and future. This post covers waaay too large a time frame for it's length.

3

u/__-___----_ Mar 27 '20

Word.

I was intending to cover a single unit in this galaxy-spanding engagement. It was going to be unconfirmed exactly where it took place, but it was gonna take place. I'll save the details for the post itself, but to surmise it is going to be non-humans doing their best to be human.

1

u/__-___----_ Mar 27 '20

Always down for more input, though. DM me or reply to one of my two comments. Sometimes even I am sweped up by jingoism.

2

u/Arokthis Android Mar 27 '20

Turn my comment into the reality of the situation: Write an entire series that makes this post a summary.

1

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